Bwings and sensor jammers

By Jaden Ckast, in X-Wing

So just curious if anyone has used bwings with sensor jammers and if so how they worked out.

I have yet to try it out but my thoughts are they may be helpful to make up for the 1 agility. Also if I have this correct the attacker would roll his dice and then I would trigger my jammers in which case he would need to choose wether to spend his focus?

You are correct. You first modify one of his hits and transform it into an eye. But then, if he has a focus token, he can transform it back again into a hit.

I tried them a lot when they came out cause I thought they were much better before I realized I was playing them wrong. We were playing them that the attacker must modify his dice before sensor jammer kicks in. It made sense to us playing them that way because there were enough ways to get double focus tokens on your ship. I still like them. It kind of forces your opponent to take a focus action to get around the sensor jammer ship.

Edited by tk426

If you have an opponent that likes to K-turn, they're great. I've tried Ibtisam + Sensor Jammer + Elusiveness and was quite impressed with her staying power.

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

Edited by MajorJuggler

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

So to me isn't advanced sensors only useful if you plan on stressing? So on a bwing it means you want to k turn or do a hard turn and still get an action but the next turn your vulnerable because now you need to clear the stress and that card is useless while stressed. That's how I see it, is there something I'm missing that makes it better?

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

So to me isn't advanced sensors only useful if you plan on stressing? So on a bwing it means you want to k turn or do a hard turn and still get an action but the next turn your vulnerable because now you need to clear the stress and that card is useless while stressed. That's how I see it, is there something I'm missing that makes it better?

Being able to barrel roll before revealing your maneuver is a HUGE benefit. Being able to take an action even if you ram a ship or pass through an asteroid. Man I wish Interceptors could take advanced sensors!

Edited by Red Castle

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

So to me isn't advanced sensors only useful if you plan on stressing? So on a bwing it means you want to k turn or do a hard turn and still get an action but the next turn your vulnerable because now you need to clear the stress and that card is useless while stressed. That's how I see it, is there something I'm missing that makes it better?

You can also take an action before bumping, or barrel roll before your maneuver to avoid a bump; makes b wings much more mobile

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

So to me isn't advanced sensors only useful if you plan on stressing? So on a bwing it means you want to k turn or do a hard turn and still get an action but the next turn your vulnerable because now you need to clear the stress and that card is useless while stressed. That's how I see it, is there something I'm missing that makes it better?

Being able to barrel roll before revealing your maneuver is a HUGE benefit. Being able to take an action even if you ram a ship or pass through an asteroid. Man I wish Interceptors could take advanced sensors!

I havnt tried this yet so I can't say from experience but would barrel rolling before you move put you in the same spot as barrel rolling after you move assuming you chose the same maneuvers for each one?

And you can also do maneuvers that aren't possible without advanced sensors. For example, do a barrel roll back and to the right, then make a 1-turn to the left. You've just turned 90* while hardly moving. Or you could deliberately bump a ship right in front of you to effectively take a stop maneuver, and since you took your action before moving you don't suffer any penalties.

I havnt tried this yet so I can't say from experience but would barrel rolling before you move put you in the same spot as barrel rolling after you move assuming you chose the same maneuvers for each one?

Only if you do a straight maneuver. Consider a turn with your ship facing directly forward from your position: if you barrel roll before moving you're doing it on the left/right axis, if you do it after moving you're doing on the forward/backward axis.

Edited by iPeregrine

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

So to me isn't advanced sensors only useful if you plan on stressing? So on a bwing it means you want to k turn or do a hard turn and still get an action but the next turn your vulnerable because now you need to clear the stress and that card is useless while stressed. That's how I see it, is there something I'm missing that makes it better?

Being able to barrel roll before revealing your maneuver is a HUGE benefit. Being able to take an action even if you ram a ship or pass through an asteroid. Man I wish Interceptors could take advanced sensors!

I havnt tried this yet so I can't say from experience but would barrel rolling before you move put you in the same spot as barrel rolling after you move assuming you chose the same maneuvers for each one?

Not when doing a turn movement or a K-turn. It can also makes you dodge a ship or asteroid you would otherwise ram into. Try it just once, trust me, you'll fall in love with it and suddenly, every other system will lose a lot of charm.

Oy vey, back to Advanced Sensors...

They are good. Definitely worth the 3 points.

However, Sensor Jammer is ALSO very good, and easily worth the 4 points. Once you get into close range and start K-Turning and bumping, it becomes extremely valuable. Howlrunner begins to lose her shine also, since the TIEs can not go without their focus and still fire accurately. A good swarm player will often bump intentionally in order to "stop" the swarm, relying on Howlrunner to make up for the lost actions. That tactic is pretty ineffective when you know FOR CERTAIN the most hits each TIE could possibly roll against you is one. Since the alternative to "stopping" is K-Turning, the swarm player is going to have a difficult time hitting you. The turn they K-Turn Jammer is great, and next turn you are right on top of them.

On Ibtisam, Sensor Jammer plus her ability means you have a very good chance of completely avoiding a shot from a TIE.

Advanced Sensors are very good, but excellent players will find they can sometimes be a "win more" type of upgrade since good maneuvering often makes them superfluous. I especially often see people moving up to an asteroid and focusing, taking a Range 3 shot through the rock with their focus available. They do this because next turn they can barrel roll out from behind it before moving to avoid running into the rock. The problem with doing that is that they could have barrel rolled out from behind the rock right away, then had a focus available for next turn when they are at closer range and it could provide more offense. Having your focus available for 3d defense is not as useful as having it available for 4d offense, so that is a bad trade.

Despite the theory crafting nay-sayers, I have never had an instance where Sensor Jammer has failed to save at least 1 or 2 damage, and I have had it save as many a 6 damage in a single round of firing (after a K-Turn). Which makes it a solid upgrade for the points. If you want to get the most out of it, it does require you to know your own list and fly in a way that utilizes its strengths. But that is just part of the game.

Also, Opportunist. Just saying.

Edited by KineticOperator

Oy vey, back to Advanced Sensors...

They are good. Definitely worth the 3 points.

However, Sensor Jammer is ALSO very good, and easily worth the 4 points. Once you get into close range and start K-Turning and bumping, it becomes extremely valuable. Howlrunner begins to lose her shine also, since the TIEs can not go without their focus and still fire accurately. A good swarm player will often bump intentionally in order to "stop" the swarm, relying on Howlrunner to make up for the lost actions. That tactic is pretty ineffective when you know FOR CERTAIN the most hits each TIE could possibly roll against you is one. Since the alternative to "stopping" is K-Turning, the swarm player is going to have a difficult time hitting you. The turn they K-Turn Jammer is great, and next turn you are right on top of them.

On Ibtisam, Sensor Jammer plus her ability means you have a very good chance of completely avoiding a shot from a TIE.

Advanced Sensors are very good, but excellent players will find they can sometimes be a "win more" type of upgrade since good maneuvering often makes them superfluous. I especially often see people moving up to an asteroid and focusing, taking a Range 3 shot through the rock with their focus available. They do this because next turn they can barrel roll out from behind it before moving to avoid running into the rock. The problem with doing that is that they could have barrel rolled out from behind the rock right away, then had a focus available for next turn when they are at closer range and it could provide more offense. Having your focus available for 3d defense is not as useful as having it available for 4d offense, so that is a bad trade.

Despite the theory crafting nay-sayers, I have never had an instance where Sensor Jammer has failed to save at least 1 or 2 damage, and I have had it save as many a 6 damage in a single round of firing (after a K-Turn). Which makes it a solid upgrade for the points. If you want to get the most out of it, it does require you to know your own list and fly in a way that utilizes its strengths. But that is just part of the game.

Also, Opportunist. Just saying.

That's a very good post, I have to agree with you that was my thought process, I'm looking to add more defense to my B's. While the adv sensors do sound good I still like having the chance to strip the focus from my enemy and if they don't have a focus even better that means they lose a hit right out the gate. I guess in the end I'll have to try both for myself. My "plan" was to use 2 b's with sensor jammer a naked xwing and a y wing with ion turret and r2 astro. B's get the firepower and defense they need the y gets a turret plus a lot of green maneuvers and the xwing is sort of a point filler at this point. I thought about an awing but instead of an x but I like the 3 attack better and the extra hit point.

I'm a fan of Sensor Jammers and have used them to great effect.

There are 2 ways to get the most out of them:

1 - Shoot first! If your opponent spends their focus defending your shots, then your Jammers will be more effective. Swarm Tactics on a high PS pilot works well for this as does Roark Garnet. Wes Janson and Toryn Far can also be used to remove tokens and make the Jammers more effective.

2 - Send in blockers! Prototype Pilots and ORS can be used to block your opponents actions which in turn makes the Jammers more effective.

The best thing I've noted about Sensor Jammers is it dictates your opponents action choices. Sometimes your against Soontir Fel or a Recon Specialist and they have little impact, but in other cases they force your opponent to choose Focus actions when they may have preferred something else.

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

Context dependent.

Sensor Jammer + Rebel Captive on a Lambda (particularly Kagi) utterly shuts down Falcon lists.

I'm interested to see if the B-wing's crew will be mutually exclusive with it's system upgrade.

Edited by Introverdant

I especially often see people moving up to an asteroid and focusing, taking a Range 3 shot through the rock with their focus available. They do this because next turn they can barrel roll out from behind it before moving to avoid running into the rock. The problem with doing that is that they could have barrel rolled out from behind the rock right away, then had a focus available for next turn when they are at closer range and it could provide more offense. Having your focus available for 3d defense is not as useful as having it available for 4d offense, so that is a bad trade.

Of course you shouldn't always do that, but the point is that advanced sensors is about options . Without AS you have one choice, you barrel roll away from the asteroid on the first turn. With AS you have that option, but you also have two other options: you can take the focused shot now if you think the attack now is worth more than a potential attack next turn, or you can even take the focused shot now AND the focused shot next turn by taking your focus action before deliberately flying through the asteroid.

Despite the theory crafting nay-sayers, I have never had an instance where Sensor Jammer has failed to save at least 1 or 2 damage, and I have had it save as many a 6 damage in a single round of firing (after a K-Turn).

But 1-2 damage isn't enough. 4 points gets you a shield upgrade that prevents 1 damage automatically. To break even on the sensor jammer you need to have it work multiple times, and that's just not something you can be confident in. Sure, it can stop tons of damage in a single turn in the right situation, but it can also do literally nothing because your opponent is always using offensive focus anyway.

Edited by iPeregrine

The problem with using Sensor Jammer on a B-wing, is you could have taken Advanced Sensors instead.

Edit: The 2nd problem is that Sensor Jammer is only mediocre at best.

My son ran Chewy with Gunner and DTF and 2 Blues with Sensor Jammers at Worlds. He finished top 16!

Running sensor jammers means your opponent has to use a focus token on attack or you save yourself 1 point of damage each attack. By forcing your opponent to use the focus on attack, it makes it easier for your 3-dice attack (assuming B-Wing for now) to hit. At 4 points, if you can save yourself more than 2 damage in a game it is a bargain. And my son could save 3-6 points per ship in some games, keeping the B-Wings around a lot longer than they should have been.

Edited by Spike IT

Sensor Jammer + Rebel Captive on a Lambda (particularly Kagi) utterly shuts down Falcon lists.

How exactly? You take a stress token for shooting at the captive, but you already have your focus/marksmanship available and next turn you can take a green maneuver to clear stress and get another focus/marksmanship. And since you've got a turret the green-only restriction on your maneuvering is much less severe than it would be for other ships.

By forcing your opponent to use the focus on attack, it makes it easier for your 3-dice attack to hit.

The problem with this theory is that offense is better than defense in this game. When the best defense is killing the other ship faster so they don't get to shoot at you as many times you're almost always willing to spend your focus on offense anyway. You're only getting any benefit from the sensor jammer if your opponent doesn't get any eyeballs on their initial roll, so that the jammer forces them to spend a focus token that they weren't already spending.

Edited by iPeregrine

Sensor Jammer + Rebel Captive on a Lambda (particularly Kagi) utterly shuts down Falcon lists.

How exactly? You take a stress token for shooting at the captive, but you already have your focus/marksmanship available and next turn you can take a green maneuver to clear stress and get another focus/marksmanship. And since you've got a turret the green-only restriction on your maneuvering is much less severe than it would be for other ships.

It's a control thing.

Not sure I can fully elucidate the matchup, but I've playtested this particular match a lot. It just works out in a way that maximizes the Lambda's advantages and minimizes the Falcon's.

For one thing, the Falcon green-moving most of the time means that the shuttle will usually be able to return fire, and the shuttle is more cost efficient as long as you're getting shooting turns with regularity. Further, the Falcon green-moving means it is not threatening your other ships - typically Interceptors.

and of course Rebel Captive is effectively stressing 50% of their points.

This has been my experience, anyway. It's been so frustrating for my playtesting partner that he's written off the Falcon entirely.

Edited by Introverdant

Slightly out of Topic, but I had great sucess with the following list.

- OGP Shuttle with EU, Rebell Capitve, Sensor Jammer,

- Soontir Fel with Stealth, PTL & TC

- Carnor Jax with PTL + Shield Upgrade

With this three ship list, you want your to be on the board as long as possible, and Sensor Jammer helps a lot. Carnor Jax can shut down Focus Actions in range one, and the stress resulting from Rebell captive helps limiting enemy movement, so Soontir can really shine with his TC and generally Focus stacked attacks.

Only problem is, that you have to fly really carefully to avoid getting your Interceptors killed, but thats a general weakness of all Interceptor builds. In Terms of surviveability shield upgrade on Jax really helps a ton, especially against YTs..

So even after you put the hit on an eye, he can still focus and put it on a hit? Doesn't it state so on the card, that this isn't possible?

So even after you put the hit on an eye, he can still focus and put it on a hit? Doesn't it state so on the card, that this isn't possible?

Modifying != rerolling.

So even after you put the hit on an eye, he can still focus and put it on a hit? Doesn't it state so on the card, that this isn't possible?

Yes. Otherwise what would be the point of turning it into an eye? If it's an eye that can't be turned into a hit by a focus token then that's the same as just saying "may cancel one hit", so it would use that as a simpler and more obvious effect.

The point of turning it to an eye can be several things, maybe a pilot special ability or smth.... but good to know anyhow, weve always played this one wrong -.-

Well, what you're saying is "oh, lookie, you rolled a natural hit, guess you'll keep that focus for defense, huh?." *turn "so, about that focus token you have lying around..."

Forcing your opponent into having to make decisions is never a bad thing.